THISTLE SEED

I heard a woman; she said to her child,
quite wantonly, on the street: "t'Were far better
if you were never born." It didn't reply,
it was still small, but instantly started
to drag its feet; like someone
in exile carrying a yoke with baskets
and noticing desperately that she's pregnant.
Maybe in Babylon or Nineveh.

Yea, it was pregnant, impregnated by that word.
That was, germinated in the dark, on its way:
to third and fourth generations of its breed.